


Smells Like Teen Suspension

by Corporal_Levi_cleans_my_house



Series: That's Amore [1]
Category: Slugterra
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkward Flirting, Fluff, M/M, mentor, pizzeria, robo-slugs, sentient ammunition, slingers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 01:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11636229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corporal_Levi_cleans_my_house/pseuds/Corporal_Levi_cleans_my_house
Summary: After a reluctant move from the big city to some quiet and out of the way town, Eli is developing as a person, finding out things about himself and about a man he has looked up to for so long. When they meet in person, Eli realises that hero worship might not be what he’s feeling for Mario after all.But what the hell is he supposed to do with that?





	Smells Like Teen Suspension

**Author's Note:**

> If I don’t post this now, it’ll never happen. This is for the Slugterra fandom, it deserves 117% more attention and fanworks than it has.
> 
> Info:   
> AU where the Burning World and Slugterra are one, big planet and everyone lives topside. Slugs are a unique form of ammunition manufactured with AI, designed to apprehend opponents without causing irreparable damage. The first safe, smart ammunition. So safe that everyone has some (essentially little robo-slugs, they can be tweaked and repaired).
> 
> Eli Shane is unhappy with moving from his old life in the city to a new life in a much quieter, out of the way town. Things are very different out here, and Eli is only comforted by his tech-savy abilities that help make his new life bearable as he fits in.
> 
> Eli wasn’t allowed to be around slugs or slingers for a long time, since his dad worried about him getting hurt. Eli kept up with the known slingers, techniques, types of slugs, and even how to maintain and program them. He only recently got to start slinging, only a few days after his dad left on a new job and before he was shipped off to some remote town. At his new school, he meets some cool, odd new people. Starts to learn to sling, makes friends, and then meets his one, true slug-slinging idol: Mario Bravado.
> 
> Which is where this takes off. Very situational. Have fun.

Their first encounter had been…interesting. It wasn’t every day that you got to meet your slug-slinging idol, and working at a pizzeria no less! Not exactly the life one might have expected of Mario Bravado, ex-slug-slinger and trick-shot extraordinaire, but hey...Eli wasn't there to judge.

He was there to fanboy. And maybe get a job, that had been on the agenda, too.

Eli was just doing his best not to make a bad first impression. When he met people, they tended to either like him or straight up hate him, there wasn’t much middle ground. Eli had a spectacularly confusing personality that people either thought was charming or annoying.

And man, he really hoped he didn’t land in the annoying column for Mario.

“Got any positions open for a questionable youth?” Had been his opening line, already out of his mouth and he’d barely gotten in the door.

Thankfully the place was empty save for the man behind the counter.

Mario Bravado himself. Damn. He looked…well, different but a cheesy (pun intended) uniform had that effect on most people. It was a far cry from the man’s prime slug-slinging days, but Eli found himself impressed nonetheless.

If anything, at least Mario hadn’t let himself go during his retirement.

That was around about the time Eli noticed that he was being stared down by said idol and he fought the urge to fidget. Play it cool. Just…look useful and he’ll hire you.

After a somewhat surprised once-over, Mario met Eli’s gaze and cocked an eyebrow.

“Blue?” He asked.

Ah, the classic hair question.

“I’ll have you know that what you’re looking at is one hundred percent natural.” Eli grinned, waiting for the inevitable response.

There were two that he expected. Annoyance, which was the most common, or…

It took a moment, but Mario cracked a smirk. There was an eye roll accompanying the tiny smile, but Eli counted that as a win nonetheless.

Reaction number two: acceptance. The rarer but more appealing response where people found Eli’s eccentricities endearing, and took him as he was at any given moment. Eli was a quirky guy and he knew that.

“Whatever you say, squirt.” Mario said over his shoulder, already back to work. He was still smiling, though, and Eli took absolute credit for that. “Don’t blame me if the uniform doesn’t suit you.”

Eli had to physically bite his tongue to keep himself from blurting out “Everything suits me” and making himself seem even more of an overconfident asshole. At the moment he was cute bordering on too much, and it was better to stay this side of the line.

More importantly…he’d just been hired. In probably the least complicated way known to man.

Maybe Eli's luck was improving?

 

 

It had been improving for the few weeks that Eli managed to balance work and school. Things had been fine. Eli had his new friends, no one was out to kick his ass, and he’d even managed not to piss off his new boss and get fired. Amazing. And then one day Eli turned up to the pizzeria earlier than usual.

Of course it didn’t go unnoticed.

Mario took one look at Eli’s blue smudged fingers and hairline, and he laughed.

“I think you’ve got a little more colour than you intended.” The former-slinger informed his haphazard employee over the counter.

“Slept through my alarm.” Eli announced, breezing past the older man. “Dying hair in a hurry really isn’t my style, as you can see.”

It certainly had to have happened in a hurry for Eli to have arrived in such a state. Mario had never seen the kid without the several layers of primping and styling, and the contrast was…well, kind of hilarious.

“Oh no, you can totally pull off the permanent marker hairline.” Mario said good-naturedly.

It wasn’t even a lie; Eli could pull off just about anything.

Eli’s nod was entirely serious. “I really can. I’m adorable.”

It was even funnier watching such a serious expression on someone who literally looked as though they’d been attacked with a sharpie. Eli’s hairline looked like a kindergartener’s attempt at colouring within the boundaries. But Mario wasn’t about to rain on the kid’s parade.

“If that’s the word for your odd charm, then sure. You’re adorable.” Mario said, and watched as Eli turned a rosy colour.

A little complimenting went a long way. Eli was surprisingly easy to fluster and that fact was made even better by how often and unsubtly the boy tried to flirt.

Eli was uncharacteristically quiet for a long while after that, and Mario wasn’t entirely sure why that made him smile. At least the kid could work while he wasn’t spending a third of his energy talking.

The quiet that enveloped the store was pleasant, at least in Mario’s opinion. Eli could have felt completely different, but the older man was content to work without trying to keep up a conversation. It wasn’t as if he didn’t like to chat, but Mario hadn’t been equipped to talk to a teenager in…years actually. Having an actual conversation with one kind of threw him for a loop, aside from the customary banter exchanged by kids ordering pizza Mario didn’t go out of his way to interact with the youth of society. They brought him good business, always hungry and eager to stuff their faces with cheesy goodness. Mario liked his younger customers, but he was clueless when it came to being around them in this setting. A social one, even though Eli was technically working for him, which made this a business setting.

Eli would have made one of his weird, mashed words to describe it. Mario wondered what it would have been this time? Busocial? Sociness? Eli was quirky like that, often talking faster than he was really thinking.

Oh man, Mario was thinking way too much into everything. Maybe it really was better for Eli to be talking; it gave Mario the perfect distraction to forget just how awful he was with people.

He started with a terribly cliché “how was school?” because Eli hadn’t said anything about it in a while.

Mario could practically feel Eli staring at him, could imagine those blue eyes wide with the surprise of suddenly being addressed and the suspicion that would no doubt flicker across that boyish face. Mario couldn’t blame Eli for being taken aback by the sudden bid for conversation. As far as Eli knew, Mario didn’t care. He never asked about…well anything really. Eli would have every right to feel confused.

There was even a moment in which Mario was sure that his question was going to be ignored.

“I got suspended.”

The statement was soft-spoken, a guilty mumble, but Mario heard it. He was surprised enough to freeze for a second, letting the words sink in.

Crap. Asking about school was supposed to be a boring, safe topic. He hadn’t expected his conversation starter to launch them straight into a serious topic. Better he’d kept his mouth shut and enjoyed the rare moment of peace and quiet.

Rare…only because Eli made everything seem busier, brighter, when he was around.

Goddammit all.

“It happens.” Mario decided to say finally, because the last thing Eli needed was a disappointed hero. From the dejected slump of the boy’s shoulders when Mario stole a glance over at him, Eli had already faced a thorough enough experience of guilt over what had happened. “Can I ask what went down?”

Mario turned enough to be able to see Eli out of the corner of his eye as they worked.

Movement. Eli gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Stuff.”

Oh boy. This was already more teenage angst than Mario had ever thought he would deal with, even from himself. Eli had barely even said more than four words since he’d first fallen silent.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Mario offered, because he’d been the one to bring up school in the first place.

As unprepared as he was for the coming conversation, he couldn’t just back out on the kid now.

“Not really…yeah. Not to you.” Eli murmured before he practically squeaked, something like mortification written across his face as he turned quickly. “N-Not that you’re not good to talk to, I just meant…I don’t want to bother you.”

“What bothers me is a moping employee.” Mario said, hoping he didn’t sound harsh. Comforting people was hard. “If talking about it will help, I’m all ears.”

“That’s a funny saying, isn’t it? “I’m all ears”, like being made entirely of ears is a positive thing in any scenario.”

Mario raised an eyebrow at the blue-haired boy. “Are you deflecting?”

Eli’s eyebrows shot up but he looked resolutely at his lump of pizza dough. “No, I’m just picking apart the metaphor of, you know, the whole ears conundrum and…” he winced, “…yeah. Yeah, kinda deflecting right now.”

Not one for prolonging potentially awkward silences, Mario launched right into the issue.

“How did Eli Shane get himself suspended?” He asked, genuinely curious. Eli was a good kid and it seemed odd for him to do something reckless enough to earn himself a suspension. “I hope it was for a good reason?”

Eli’s shoulders rounded as he hunched over his dough ball, poking at it half-heartedly.

“I brought a blaster to school.” He said quietly, not quite a mumble.

Mario blinked. “Oh.”

That was…not great, admittedly, but it shouldn’t have been enough for a straight up suspension.

“And I might have fired a slug there.” Eli added.

Oh…things were definitely making more sense.

“Discreetly?” Mario asked, hoping silently.

Another wince. “In the middle of the oval.”

Yup…that would about be enough to earn a suspension.

“Ah.” Mario managed. Not good. “Why’d you do a thing like that?” He asked, going for open-minded.

Like he’d said, Eli was a good kid. Surely he wouldn’t have just started trouble without provocation or some reason.

“It was part of a demonstration.” Eli huffed. “Stupid, really. I only had the damn blaster with me because there was going to be a round of duelling on after school got out and I didn’t want to miss it.”

Mario nodded. He remembered the excitement of duelling, of how he’d tried to be prepared for a duel at any given time as a teen himself. Apparently Eli was no different, even if the sport was much friendlier nowadays.

“Fair enough.” Mario said, squinting. “But the blaster didn’t stay in your bag, well-hidden and away from teachers _because..?_ ”

“One of our teachers was giving a lesson on slinging and asked who was interested. Naturally I stuck my hand up.”

“Naturally.”

“One thing led to another and then we were having a good old fashioned show and tell with my blaster and slugs. Then some kids wanted to see what a slug being fired looked like and I got the go-ahead from the teacher. We went outside, and the minute I fired the slug our Principal came tearing over screaming her head off about child safety and dangerous hooligans. That’s me, by the way.” Eli paused to stab a thumb towards his chest, a stoic look on his face. “A dangerous, hooligan delinquent. Irresponsible and hazardous to student health. Not like anyone got hurt; none of my slugs would ever do anything to hurt someone. It was a perfectly safe shot, safe landing. Couldn’t have gone better, even with that crazy old bat screaming bloody murder.” Eli sighed.

Mario didn’t have the heart to tell him he had an elbow in his pizza dough.

“So after I got yelled at for half an hour in the Principal’s office, she told me I could spend the next three days thinking about what I’d done at home. I’m not allowed to set foot on school grounds until Thursday. Great stuff.” Eli cringed at some thought. “Can’t wait till my dad gets wind of that crap. I can imagine the video call already.” The blue-haired boy hung his head. “Man…he’s going to be so upset with me.”

Eli wasn’t wrong. There was every chance that he would get in trouble, after all parents did tend to worry.

But Eli just looked so down and Mario felt the strange and inescapable need to…maybe cheer him up.

“I’m sure your dad will understand.” He tried, racking his brain for how the great Will Shane might react to such news. It wasn’t all bad. “He’s an advocate for safe slug slinging; maybe he’ll even be proud of you for sharing safe practices with your classmates?”

Eli sniffed, God Mario hoped he wouldn’t cry because he was in no way equipped to deal with that, but the boy nodded glumly and sighed.

“I hope so,” he said, casting a weary little smile Mario’s way, “or else I’ll be super grounded.”

Actually…there might have been a solution for that too.

“Even so, I’m sure Will Shane wouldn’t be opposed to you working here while grounded.” Mario offered, going for nonchalant. He didn’t need Eli getting any ideas that he was playing favourites, although being the only other employee made it hard to play off as anything else. “Provided that you did work and didn’t wander off of the premises to mess about with your friends?”

It wasn’t much, but Mario could have sworn a little bit of light returned to Eli’s eyes.

“That wouldn’t be so bad.” The youth agreed, smiling a little at the counter.

And just like that they’d waded out of the emotionally heavy territory. Thank God.

“Feel any better?” Mario asked.

“A little, yeah.”

A relieved breath gusted free of Mario’s lungs. “Thank God for that, cos if that failed I’d have had nothing.”

“Oh no, you did great. A plus comforting skills.” Eli gave him a double thumbs up. He even managed a grin. “Thanks, Mario.”

“Anytime, kid.”

That last bit hadn’t meant to slip free, but seeing the warm little smile that it left on Eli’s face for the rest of the afternoon made Mario believe that he wouldn’t have to regret the words.

**Author's Note:**

> A super rough version of a dumb, fluffy pizzeria AU I thought up for this fandom, after struggling for SO LONG to even find a ship in this dang show. Like damn.
> 
> This was essentially in response to the extreme lack of Slugterra fanfiction out there. Come on, guys. We can do better than this, surely?


End file.
